I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
     My Old Testament reading today starts in Judges with when all of the leaders who had experienced the 40 years in the wilderness have died off. The passage says that God did not allow Joshua to drive out all of the people living in the land to test future generations as to whether they would follow the Lord’s commands. It recounts that when the leaders from the wilderness died off, the Israelites began to worship the gods of the peoples living around them and intermarrying with them. The passage tells us that when the Israelites began to worship other gods, God gave them over to a conqueror from among the peoples around them. When the Israelites called out to God, he raised up a judge to deliver them from their oppressors and lead them in following His commands. We can see the same tendency in the Church today. God will raise up a leader (or a group of leaders) who will lead a revival and the Church will grow. As long as those leaders are active in their ministry the revival will continue. Then those leaders will either die or retire and the Church will lose its vision for ministry and start to stagnate.

     The New Testament reading is Luke’s account of the Last Supper. Here Jesus instructs the disciples to break bread and share it among themselves in remembrance of His sacrifice (other Gospel writers have Him doing the same with the wine). Then something interesting happens. Jesus tells them that one of them will betray Him. They begin to discuss among themselves which of them would do such a thing. This discussion devolves into an argument over which of them will be the greatest. Jesus interrupts this argument to explain how in the Kingdom of God things are different. He tells them that the greatest in the Kingdom of God is not the one being served, but is instead the one serving. I have never thought of it before, but reading this passage reminds me of the story of Mary and Martha. I think that perhaps we should bring up what Jesus says here when we talk about that story.
     Finally, Jesus tells Peter that Satan is trying to lead him away. Peter proclaims his willingness to follow Jesus to jail. Peter’s braggadocio is probably a follow through from the argument over which of the disciples would be the greatest. In this passage, Jesus tells Peter that he will indeed deny Jesus, but instructs him to strengthen the others when he has repented. I think there is an important lesson here for all of us. We will from time to time fail to live up to God’s will for our lives, but that does not mean that we cannot repent and return to being faithful followers of God.

     The Psalm today calls on us to sing God’s praises in the morning and the evening. I am writing this blog in order to proclaim God’s love in the morning. Perhaps I should start writing a second blog entry in the evening? Whether this psalm is calling me to start writing a second blog entry each day or not, it raises up my desire to praise the Lord. The second part of this psalm reminds me of a hymn that I cannot quite remember the words of. But the phrase, “mightier than the violent raging of the seas,” strikes a chord within me of that hymn and how much it moves me.

     The second proverb this morning reminds me of something that I have seen often. The proverb says that those who take the wrong path despise the Lord. I have found that many times the philosophy of atheism (or other anti-Christian beliefs) follows a person choosing to live a sinful lifestyle rather than the other way around.